Category: Neighbours

The days following a birth are up and down, so Jessica tells me. Some days it’s all, “I love my baby!!! I love my kids!!! I love my husband!!!” while on occasional days the smallest criticism can provoke tears. Jessica was feeling good and feisty today. She was also tired of sitting inside and so decided to brave our neighbourhood streetside vegetable market for the first time since giving birth — with our 9-day-old son in a Ergo carrier.

She knew it’d be pushing the buttons of every Chinese auntie and grannie in sight and generate non-stop commentary from the moment she stepped out the door (because she’s done it before), but she didn’t care. Besides, it’s not like she hasn’t already been accused of being an evil stepmother. ;)

Here’s what she was repeatedly criticized for during her fifteen minutes in the market:

Way back when we were preparing to bring our first infant to China, Australian friends who’d had their kid in China around the time ours was born in Canada sent us a list of everything we had to look forward to/brace ourselves for. It’s still funny (and full of valuable information)!

This is one of at least four regular exercise dance groups in our neighbourhood.
This kind of mass public exercise dancing is called guÇŽngchÇŽng wÇ” å¹¿åœºèˆž, sometimes literally but confusingly translated “square dancing” (think Tiananmen ‘Square’ as in plaza, not line dancing and square dancing). In larger public spaces a block or two away, hundreds of people do this together. Cold and darkness doesn’t stop them from snaking slow circles around the public spaces in our neighbourhood, but this night at least one of the lights was working.

Some Christmas-y photos from our final month of 2015 in China.Chinese Sunday school kids sing at the annual Christmas party/show.We’ve appropriated traditional Chinese decorations as Christmas tree ornaments.Mulled wine, 2015.Every year we put up new door couplets and a new ç¦ at Christmas/New Year’s, right around the time people start thinking about getting ready for Chinese New Year. It’s actually a little early for this, as these are CNY decorations, but our family basically has a giant long winter holiday season from Advent through Chinese New Year each year.We played Santa around the neighbourhood this year with over 60 Christmas cookie packages.In exchange for the cookies, he gave our daughter a live octopus.

One of the awesome things about our neighourhood is that you can plant trees pretty much wherever. No vegetable gardens, because then our neighbourhood would be nothing but parking spaces and fields of leeks. But trees, bushes and flowers? Knock yourselves out.

Last year I tried to plant a ton of magnolias (çŽ‰å…°), but the guys at the market saw me coming a mile away and sold me every kind of tree but magnolias. Whatever; they’re trees, they’re growing.

This spring planting season, however, began with me planting a peach tree and a “Chinese toon” ï¼ˆé¦™æ¤¿ï¼‰ tree in the last two available spots in the shared grass area around our building, and ended with me uprooting them at the earnest badgering of two anxious neighbours while one of them burned incense to the tree and flower god.

It gave me yet another opportunity to stumble down the rabbit hole of traditional Chinese taboos and superstitions (note: there are many such rabbit holes in China!). And it went something like this…

Planting Trees Wrong in China — Day 1
One of my neighbours told me today that I can’t plant é¦™æ¤¿ (“Chinese toon / fragrant cedar / Toona sinensis”?) on the back side of the house, which is apparently what I’ve done. I’ll defer to her knowledge about trees; she’s over 50 and grew up in a Chinese village. I asked if it was because the sun was no good there. Nope, nothing to do with sunlight. I kept asking why, and she just kept saying that in China you don’t plant é¦™æ¤¿s behind houses, especially according to the older people. (Never mind that what she calls “behind” is the front and only entrance to our stairwell. In China front/back orients to the sun, not the front door.).

So I asked on å¾®ä¿¡ (aka WeChat aka Chinese Facebook), and got a lot of replies:

This is feudal superstition, don’t bother about her. Don’t plant willows in the front, don’t plant mulberries in the back — they’re all superstitions. We just believe in Jesus, not in whatever else. è¿™æ˜¯å°å»ºè¿·ä¿¡ï¼Œåˆ«æ‰“ç†ä»–ï¼Œå‰ä¸ç§æŸ³æ ‘ï¼ŒåŽä¸ç§æ¡‘æ ‘ï¼Œéƒ½æ˜¯è¿·ä¿¡ï¼Œæˆ‘ä»¬åªä¿¡è€¶ç¨£ï¼Œåˆ«çš„ä»€ä¹ˆéƒ½ä¸ä¿¡

She means you planting that tree in that place will bring bad luck. ä»–çš„æ„æ€æ˜¯ä½ æŠŠé‚£ä¸ªæ ‘ç§åˆ°é‚£ä¸ªä½ç½®ä¼šç»™ä½ å¸¦æ¥å€’éœ‰çš„äº‹æƒ…

You also can’t plant mulberry trees, locust trees, willow trees, pine trees, cypress trees or banyan trees in the yard. 5000 years of history have not only given us glorious, splendid culture, but also innumerable superstitions and taboos. Although not many people can explain clearly why. é™¢å­é‡Œä¸èƒ½ç§çš„æ ‘è¿˜æœ‰æ¡‘æ ‘ï¼Œæ§æ ‘ï¼ŒæŸ³æ ‘ï¼Œæ¾æ ‘ï¼ŒæŸæ ‘ï¼Œæ¦•æ ‘ã€‚äº”åƒå¹´çš„åŽ†å²ä¸ä»…ç»™äº†æˆ‘ä»¬å…‰è¾‰ç¿çƒ‚çš„æ–‡åŒ–ï¼Œè¿˜æœ‰æ•°ä¸æ¸…çš„è¿·ä¿¡å’Œç¦å¿Œã€‚å°½ç®¡æ²¡æœ‰å‡ ä¸ªäººèƒ½è¯´å¾—æ¸…ä¸ºä»€ä¹ˆã€‚

There’s no problem with Chinese toons. But apparently according to fÄ“ngshuÇ, you can’t plant mulberry trees. Chinese toons are not problem. But this one is too close to the house and might obstruct the windows. é¦™æ¤¿æ ‘æ²¡æœ‰é—®é¢˜å§ã€‚ä½†æ˜¯ä¼¼ä¹Žä¾æ®é£Žæ°´ï¼Œä¸èƒ½ç§æ¡‘æ ‘ã€‚é¦™æ¤¿æ²¡é—®é¢˜ã€‚ä½†æ˜¯è¿™ä¸€æ£µç¦»ç€æˆ¿å­å¤ªè¿‘å¯èƒ½ä¼šæŒ¡ä½çª—æˆ·ã€‚ã€‚

Planting Trees Wrong in China — Day 2 I just cannot win with trees in China this spring! Another neighbour (not the one from yesterday) just came down to ç»™æˆ‘è¯´è¯´ about another tree, this time a peach tree ï¼ˆæ¡ƒæ ‘ï¼‰. And she was in earnest. Turns out you can’t plant peach trees in the é™¢å­ — like the “yard” of a house or courtyardï¼› they’re supposed to go on mountains or public parks. Because something about husbands dying(!) and how it will bring bad luck and all the residents in our building will be affected. I couldn’t catch all her explanation because she’s a Qingdao å¥¶å¥¶ (imagine a small-town Texan talking to an international student).

And then she went out and burned incense and paper money to the Tree & Flower god and everything (I am *not* making this up) before trying to uproot a bush (not mine) that was threatening to block her windows, telling it sorry and that she was going to move it to a new home (*not* true: she hacked it to pieces with an axe, poured toilet cleaner on the roots and threw the branches in the garbage. I’m assuming the Tree and Flower god is either not that bright, or very forgiving…).

So I asked on å¾®ä¿¡ again, and got a whole nother pile of replies:

So painful. Just plant what you want to plant, so long as you don’t disturb others you’re OK. China has so many superstitious ideas, what can you do? å¥½ç—›è‹¦ï¼Œæƒ³ç§ä»€ä¹ˆå°±ç§ä»€ä¹ˆï¼Œåªè¦ä¸å½±å“åˆ«äººå°±okäº†ï¼Œä¸­å›½é‚£ä¹ˆå¤šè¿·ä¿¡æ€æƒ³ï¼Œæ€Žä¹ˆåŠžï¼Ÿ

I’d be worried about offending the peach blossoms! [snicker] æ‹…å¿ƒçŠ¯æ¡ƒèŠ±[å·ç¬‘]

Just plant whatever you like to plant [grin] ä½ å–œæ¬¢ç§ä»€ä¹ˆå°±ç§ä»€ä¹ˆå§[å‘²ç‰™]

Chinese superstitions ä¸­å›½è¿·ä¿¡

So many go in for superstitions!! æžè¿·ä¿¡çš„çœŸå¤šï¼ï¼

Frankly, I’ve never heard of this, you should Baidu it and see if you can get an answer. è¯´å®žè¯ï¼Œæˆ‘éƒ½æ²¡å¬è¯´è¿‡ï¼Œä½ ç™¾åº¦ä¸€ä¸‹è¯•è¯•çœ‹èƒ½ä¸èƒ½æ‰¾åˆ°ç­”æ¡ˆã€‚

This is related to superstition! It has nothing to do with you. è¿™å’Œè¿·ä¿¡æœ‰å…³ï¼å’Œä½ ä¸€ç‚¹å…³ç³»éƒ½æ²¡æœ‰ã€‚

Folkways and customs æ°‘é£Žæ°‘ä¿—

Planting Trees Wrong in China — Day 3
So this afternoon I transplanted the fÄ“ngshuÇ-offending, superstitious-neighbour-triggering trees from our shared yard to the public park area beside the preschool, where the neighbourhood kids play, the elderly sit in the sun, and retirees do taiji and group exercise.

Two of my students ran over while I was planting the second one:

“Mr. Lu! Are you done planting? Mr. Lu! Are you done planting? Mr. Lu! Are you done planting? Mr. Lu! Are you done planting?”

The other night I was sharing beer-in-a-bag ï¼ˆæ•£å•¤ï¼‰, peanuts and tiny dried shrimps with our neighbourhood’s convenience store owner to celebrate his son’s 100th day outside the womb ï¼ˆç™¾å²ï¼‰. He said his family is supposed to pay RMB 100,000 as a fine for having a second child in violation of China’s One Child Policy ï¼ˆè®¡åˆ’ç”Ÿè‚²æ”¿ç­–ï¼‰. We estimated that works out to USD 14,286, but it’s actually higher: 16,141.92 USD (we calculated at 7å…ƒ/$1 at the time). But there are a couple details that make this extra interesting.

First, $16,142 is a relatively low fine. These fines are calculated according to the father’s hukou ï¼ˆæˆ·å£ï¼‰, his registered place of residence, not their current location. He’s from a village, so he has a rural hukou, and that means his fine is less. A Qingdao city native would be fined more than double. (China’s hukou system has a long historical tradition, functioning to control population mobility, i.e. keeping peasants tied to their land and out of the cities.)

Second, because they’re officially classed as “peasants”, if their first child had been female then they wouldn’t be fined for having a second child. But because their first child was a boy, a second child is not allowed. Urbanites aren’t afforded this concession.

Third, they don’t intend to pay. In their situation at least, their kid still gets a hukou and can access social services like school and health care even though they haven’t paid. He says they get calls every day badgering them to pay, but they’re betting that in a year or two China will further loosen the One Child Policy, so they’re going to drag their feet as much as possible. Last year China eased the One Child Policy slightly in response to the looming demographic time-bomb it created (disproportionately large elderly population); couples where one spouse is a single child may have two children. He says he thinks they’ll loosen it further, effectively exempting them from their fine.Our neighbour’s One Child Policy fine, when we converted it to USD.More encounters with China’s One Child Policy: